Marysville Middle School

Greetings Marysville Middle School Community,

Thank you for a successful start to the school year! Learning is alive at MMS! The students have settled into their new classrooms and the teachers are providing engaging lessons on a daily basis. Some questions you might want to ask your child(ren) each night are:

• How do you Model Respect, Make Good Decisions, and Solve Problems at MMS? (PBIS Matrix )
• What did you read or was read to you in school today?
• What did you learn in Math today? Did you understand it?
• Do you need me to sign anything for you to return tomorrow?

STAR ASSESSMENTS

Your child’s academic growth and success is of the utmost importance to the staff at MMS. This past month we completed our first academic STAR assessments for reading and math. This assessment may be given multiple times throughout the year to analyze student growth; all students in our district complete a pre-assessment (in Fall) and a post assessment (in Spring). Our goal is to continue to see student growth in all areas over the course of the school year, as the STAR assessment has a high correlation with how your student may perform on the Smarter Balanced Assessment in the spring. Our staff are currently analyzing this student data to inform their instruction in the classroom to help meet your student’s individual learning needs.

PARENT/TEACHER ARENA STYLE CONFERENCES

No appointment necessary - Teachers will be seated at tables surrounding the outer wall of the gym and cafeteria eagerly ready to discuss your student’s progress. The tables are arranged so that teachers and parents can speak comfortably. Parents are able to move from one teacher to the next fairly smoothly. Our goal for conferences is to provide feedback to parents/guardians in 10 minutes or less. If you have a major concern and feel that your conference session with a teacher will take longer than 10 minutes please call and schedule a separate meeting with that teacher at 360-965-0900.

1. Conference Bell Schedule
2. October 25th:
   1. Afternoon conferences (1-3p.m.)
   2. Evening conferences (5-7 p.m.)
3. October 26th:
   1. Afternoon conferences (1-3 p.m.)
4. October 27th:
   1. . Conferences by appointment only, as teachers who are at Evening Conferences are allowed to leave school when students are dismissed.

ASSOCIATED STUDENT BODY NEWS

ASB Leadership will be selling school spirit apparel during afternoon and evening conferences.

1. ASB Give-Away is Thursday, October 19th during Lunches.
2. ASB Costume Movie is Friday, October 20th from 6-8pm. Admission is $1.00 w/ASB & $3.00 w/o ASB.
3. ASB Fright Night Dance is Friday, October 27th from 1:30-3:00pm. Admission is $3.00 w/ASB & $5.00 w/o ASB.
4. Coming ASB Events:
   1. Spirit Week October 30th-November 3rd
   2. Veteran’s Day Assembly: November 9th- All parents & family are welcome
   3. Food Drive: November TBA

If you are interested in volunteering in the Student Store or at ASB events please contact Tyler Mann @ tyler_mann@msd25.org

STUDENT FREE TIME

As the weather begins to get much colder the following will continue: Students are invited to be in the Student Center, outside covered area, cafeteria, library (Mon/Wed), and the Field during their “free time” at lunch. Please help by making sure your child comes to school dressed for the weather. Also, remember that the school building is not open until 7:45 AM, so please do not drop your child off or allow them to walk to school too soon.

SUPPORTING YOUR STUDENT

Please help us by talking with your child often regarding how he/she is doing in school. If you notice a concern please contact your student’s teacher, counselor, or myself as soon as possible. Too often we hear of concerns well into the school year or not at all. Our goal is to provide you and your child with the best education possible. To continue to meet this commitment we need your involvement. Our work together is vital to helping your student be successful in middle school.

PARENT TEACHER STUDENT ASSOCIATION (PTSA)

This school year has only just started and the Marysville Middle School PTSA has been working hard for our school and kiddos! Here are a few of the highlights of how they have been involved in helping our students/staff:

• Back to School Orientation (all sessions) - volunteering their time to help with the agenda/logistics, distributing chromebooks, collecting forms, and helping in the Student Store.
• PTSA Facebook Page - communicating what is happening at MMS through their own Webpage
• Picture Day - volunteering their time to help this day run smoothly and reduce tension/anxiety for students and staff! Thank you for those smiles!
• PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Systems/Support) SWAG giveaways - As shared above, our PBIS Matrix is how we expect all students to behave throughout our school. Students are provided opportunities for positive reinforcement (SWAG tickets) for demonstrating meeting these expectations. PTSA volunteers provide “extra goodies”, such as root beer floats, during lunch time for our students to purchase with their SWAG tickets.

We are so fortunate to have such a great group of parent volunteers! Thank you for all you do - we appreciate you very much! If you are interested in getting involved in PTSA, we meet the second Wednesday of each month at 5 p.m. in the MMS Library. Here are the dates of our upcoming meetings:

November 8th, December 13th, January 10th, February 14th, March 14th, April 11th, May 9th, June 13th

Please call me @ (360) 965-0905 or email angela_hansen@msd.org if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to meeting you!